Question about PS CS and graphics cards

GerryDavid · Dec 28, 2005

Hopefully this is the right category.

I recently thought about upgrading my graphics card *onboard emachine one* to the ATI Radeon 9200 128mb agp video card since I just got a game that my current video card wont play.

Then I got wondering if this new video card will help me out with PS CS in any way. Does anyone know if this would help it out? I think im currently using shared 32mb's of ram for the video.

The reason why im considering this card is because its regular $150cdn on sale for $100cdn and theres a $50cdn rebate on top of that, so $50 for the $150 card.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

'Daniel' · Dec 28, 2005

I'm amazed you've lived this long with 32mb onboard graphics. If you want to play games you'll need better. As for CS I'm not sure. Memory is a must but I don't know about the graphical stress of Photosjop. Theres isn't any 3D stuff or anything but it is possible it wouldn't handle it.

sorry I cant be more helpful.

Unimaxium · Dec 28, 2005

I'm pretty sure that Photoshop does not take advantage of the graphics card at all for image processing. It uses just the CPU. So no, as far as I know having a better graphics card will not speed up Photoshop. You would be better off getting more RAM for your motherboard (not taking into consideration your want for a better GPU for gaming, that is.)

GerryDavid · Dec 28, 2005

Daniel said:
I'm amazed you've lived this long with 32mb onboard graphics. If you want to play games you'll need better. As for CS I'm not sure. Memory is a must but I don't know about the graphical stress of Photosjop. Theres isn't any 3D stuff or anything but it is possible it wouldn't handle it.

sorry I cant be more helpful.

The computer is an emachine to, hehe. It handles games like need for speed underground, halo and star wars battlefront just fine. So ive been happy with it so far. But I guess the advantage would be that memory is freed up for regular ram stuff since it shares it.

Thanks for the answers. I didnt really think it would help ps out much, other than perhaps refreshing the screen faster or something.

I cant really justify $50/$100 for a video card for a $10 game *on sale, 2/3's off, splinter cell, not sure if I stated that game above*. hehe. So I was hoping it would be some benefit to ps to make it worth while. I dont play alot of games normally. :0)

'Daniel' · Dec 28, 2005

The more RAM you can have the better. I'd say 512 is a bare minimum which is what I have but am going to get some more when I have the money. PS uses alot of memory and is sluggish with 512. Althoguh I have a crappy processor so that could be part of it.

GerryDavid · Dec 28, 2005

Daniel said:
The more RAM you can have the better. I'd say 512 is a bare minimum which is what I have but am going to get some more when I have the money. PS uses alot of memory and is sluggish with 512. Althoguh I have a crappy processor so that could be part of it.

Yup. I have a p3 2.1ghz pc with 512mb of ram. PS CS is slow with 3.2mp pictures, but I tend to push the pc alot with multitasking. And work with alot of layers. I just bought the Canon 350d and im sure itll be super slow with 8mp files, hehe. Ill have to upgrade in the next year or so probably.

Polygon · Dec 28, 2005

At the moment only RAM and CPU power will help you. The second only if you have enough of the first. As soon as you run into swapping alot the fastest CPU in the world can't do anything.

But I sincerly hope that the GPUs are used sooner or later for other purposes, too. Just look at all that raw image processing power, wasted, damned to be mostly used for games only.

hot shot · Jan 2, 2006

A larger graphic card will help PS out when its rendering but if youll get better results by upgrading your screen and getting your printer configered (costs about £25) as this will give you the optimal what you se is what you get and alow you to fine tune your images. Its all a case of how much do you want to spend